Today on the podcast, I'm chatting with Kerry Tottingham, co-founder of the social enterprise A Brilliant Thing. Kerry runs A Brilliant Thing with her sisters, focusing on 'Healing Centred Design' – a fascinating framework they've developed that blends systemic approaches, creative coaching, and trauma-informed practice to help people and organisations create positive change. Despite this being a relatively abstract concept I thought I'd struggle to understand, Kerry explained the concept beautifully and I know you'll enjoy the chat as much as I did!

Kerry shares her journey and insights into how Healing Centred Design principles, and even complementary physical products, can benefit individuals and communities.

Key Takeaways

• Healing Centred Design: It's about blending systemic thinking, creative coaching, and trauma-informed practice, shifting the focus from trauma to healing, and equipping people with design tools to create better systems and adapt to change.
• Adding Products to Services: Creating a physical product (like coaching cards) can solve internal needs (collecting resources), enhance the client experience (changing the environment, offering tangible tools), and act as an invitation into your world and methodology.
• Product Strategy: You don't need a full product business. Products can be used strategically within a service business for launches, as bonuses, or exclusive offers, without necessarily requiring constant sales and shipping if that doesn't suit your model.
• Diversification & Innovation: Offering both services and products, or diversifying income streams and experiences in general, can lead to cross-pollination of ideas, innovation ('Collide and Align' principle), and resilience. It allows you to meet people where they are, offering different levels of engagement and investment.
• The Power of Safety & Collaboration: Building strong, trusting relationships, whether with co-founders (like Kerry and her sisters) or collaborators, creates the necessary safety for creativity, risk-taking, and navigating challenges.

Episode Highlights

• 02:41: The concept of Healing Centred Design.
• 08:49: The Brilliant Box coaching cards.
• 12:10: How the idea for the physical product emerged from an internal need.
• 18:16: Considering how different types of products (bite-size cards vs. in-depth book) cater to different needs and learning styles.
• 20:55: The 'Collide and Align' principle – intentionally seeking diverse ideas for innovation.

About the Guest

Kerry Tottingham is a co-founder of A Brilliant Thing, a social enterprise she runs with her sisters, Tess and Faye. They focus on teaching and implementing Healing Centred Design.

• Website: brilliantthings.co.uk
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abrilliantthing/
• Podcast: Healing Centred Transformation
• Resources: https://www.brilliantthing.co.uk/the-brilliant-box

Mentioned in the Episode

• Ideas Fest: Event where they launched the Brilliant Box.
• Hannah's Calendar: https://www.hicommunications.co.uk/product-page/2025calendar
• Sweet Pea Sensory: Maker providing Play-Doh for Kerry's book launch

End Credits

I would love to hear what you think of this episode, so please do let me know on Instagram where I'm @‌lizmmosley or @‌buildingyourbrandpodcast and I hope you enjoy the episode!

This episode was written and recorded by me and produced by Lucy Lucraft (http://lucylucraft.co.uk)

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